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Monday, July 10, 2006

el proximo año en jerusalem...

Happy birthday!! No pictures of watson this year, you'll have to rely on dan for that. But it sounds like your birthday outing really had one on Katie's Berlin Turnpike Night o'Fun. I'm jealous of all your super American summer advertures (though not so much of the actual heat involved)! This is the time for bbbqs and mini golf and whatnot. Instead, here i am in quito where it still gets dark at 6 every day.

But i am suuuper busy. Try to keep up:Actually we had a bbbq on saturday on our friend's terrace. except the guy with the grill didn't so much actually show, so it was really an un-bbbq. but it was the best un-bbbq ever!! salchichas, veggie salchicas, my marinated veggies, and lots of fresh fruit etc. Also on saturday we got a cat! She's a white cat, uncreatively named blanca. Her previous owners (friends of rebecca's who are having a baby) dropped her off with all of her various toys and accessories. She's really pretty and probably very sweet in general. BUT, she is completely and utterly terrified of us. She spent the first 12 hours hiding IN HER LITTERBOX (it has a big dome top), and since then has been hiding for similar stretches in various other locales. (behind the garbage can, in the top of becky's closet...) And if we come near her she gets super freaked and sometime hisses or scratches at us. We think she'll get over it eventually, but we're worried becuase she hasn't even eaten or drunk any water at all in 3 days. see this is why some people don't like cats... they can be suuuper high maintanance. i am a cat lady, but i can't help but think a dog might be more fun...

sunday we finally celebrated passover!! we had probbaly the world's most belated seder. but hey, better late than never right? If you recall, this non-observant jew went to the beach for the actual time of passover, and then rebecca (the actual jew in the household) went home for a month and i lost motivation. BUT, i was determined to not let another year go by without tzimmes and matzo ball soup, and becky is leaving soon, so i got my act together, cooked up a storm, and rounded up some gentiles for a pretty excellent seder. and all of this was after a FULL day - choir practice at 8 am, grocery shopping, and watching the world cup final which went into overtime AND penalty kicks. i wasn't super into it, but i vaguely was rooting for italy (seeing as how i did study there, and actually during the last world cup! too bad brazil didn't win this time and italy the last time. i'm just always on the wrong continent.) which was fun becuase we watched in a pizza place owned by italians, which made for lots of excitement.

also, i finally started using up my 30 free hours of spanish lessons at the experiment! I had my first class on thursday. the teacher is great, and thanksfully is not trying to make me do worksheets with picky grammar shit. instead he makes me talk and gives really excellent corrections. I already learned a few things i had never learned in however many million years of studying spanish. (nerdy spanish interlude: you don't use venir or traer unless you are talking about a place you are actually in. you have to use ir or llevar. if for example you want to say "the kids came to the program", you have to say "los niños fueron al programa.")

as if that weren't enough on top of a full schedule of classes, this is a big week for my choir. The university choral festival that my director organized is finally giong on this week! We're singing on wednesday, thursday, AND friday, in some of the most well -known concert halls. and some friends might finally come to see me! and a photographer came today to take some pictures of us for El Comercio... oy... i'll keep a copy to show y'all if it's not horrible embarassing.

ok, if i can get through this week i will try to get to the wireless on the weekend to update and put up some more pictures!!

It's name is Blanca, nuoriginally, as she is a white cat. we were thinking of changing her name but since she's so severely traumatized as it is, we figure maybe not so much. She definitely won't be purring any time soon... in fact she's already scratched me AND thrown up in my room. BUT, the good news is that she is being more normal!!! Instead of hiding 24/7, she actually wanders around the apartment in our presence, and has drunk some water. We're all ridiculously impressed with these signs of normalcy. as rebecca says, she's such a problem child...